PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures

My honest reaction walking into this one: low expectations, marginal surprise, and a clear sense of exactly who Namco Bandai built it for. PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures drops the classic maze entirely in favour of a third-person 3D platformer built around the Disney XD animated series, and that pivot is both the game's one interesting idea and its central problem. The single-player campaign runs through six worlds, with Pac navigating linear stages, chomping ghost enemies, and collecting Power Berries that trigger a handful of transformation forms. Those transformations are the brightest spot. Fire-Pac shoots flames, Ice-Pac freezes enemies and creates platforms, the Chameleon form lets Pac swing across gaps with a sticky tongue and go invisible past searchlights, the Granite Ball form turns him into a rolling boulder that squashes ghosts like a pinball, and the Rubber Pac form lets him bounce off walls to reach higher platforms. When the level design leans into these, the game briefly feels inventive. The problem is that the more interesting forms, like the boulder and chameleon, show up only in a handful of stages, while the less exciting ones carry most of the runtime. Eat five ghosts in quick succession and you can trigger a "Boo!" scare power that sends nearby ghosts into the classic blue fleeing state, which is a fun nod to the original. The whole thing runs about four to five hours, and there is not much incentive for a second pass. The camera is the most consistent annoyance. It requires constant manual correction mid-jump, and more than one review at launch pinned it as the mechanic that slides the experience from "mediocre" to "genuinely frustrating" in precise platforming sections. Controls feel serviceable rather than tight, though opinions split on this point: some players found them responsive enough, others felt sluggish. The ghost AI is predictably simple, and the story, involving villain Lord Betrayus stealing a freeze-ray device called the Frigidigitator to conquer Pacopolis, is essentially Saturday-morning cartoon exposition and nothing more. Blinky, Inky, Pinky, and Clyde appear as Pac's allies here rather than enemies, which will confuse anyone not already watching the show. There is also a four-player competitive multiplayer mode where players control the four classic ghosts chasing Pac through maze stages, and a set of unlockable arcade mini-games including vehicle sections like the Cherry Copter and Lemon Blaster. The multiplayer is thin and widely considered the weakest part of the package. Worth noting for PC buyers: the game was delisted from Steam in 2020 and carries a reported 30 FPS framerate cap by default, which community threads have documented workarounds for. The audience ceiling here is narrow: a young child who watches the show and has not yet played Mario 3D Land, Sonic Colors, or any Skylanders entry. For that kid, the transformation gimmick will charm for an afternoon. For everyone else, there are more rewarding 3D platformers available at similar or lower prices, and Namco's own PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX does far more interesting things with the franchise.

Alex · Scout Team

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